1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to food processing, specifically to a grate incorporated into presses used to shred and extract juice from garlic and the like.
2. Prior Art
Freshly crushed garlic is frequently required in recipes. Generally, the garlic to be crushed is placed into a press comprising a cup or receiver having a wall with a perforated surface so as to provide a grate or sieve. A ram or piston is forced into the cup, compressing the garlic so that its juice separates from its cells and flows out through the holes in the grate or sieve.
Heretofore, such presses generally have had corners and crevices which retain sticky, fibrous residue from the crushed garlic. In particular, the grate through which the juice is pressed is difficult to clean because of the grate's location at the bottom of a cup and the intricacy inherent in its large numbers of cylindrical holes.
The difficulty of cleaning garlic presses is attested to by the appearance on the market of garlic of presses advertised to be "self-cleaning". Such presses are generally provided with combs, which, when inserted into the grate, serve to dislodge residue. These accessories have further increased the cost and complexity of the device and are nearly as hard to clean as the grates themselves had been. The poking action dictated by the configuration of these combs is quite inefficient. Insertion of the combs generally fails to force the residue completely through the holes, and withdrawal of the combs tends to draw some of it back into the holes. Also, some of these combs are separate and hence easy to lose.